That will give Draper, a founder of prominent Silicon Valley VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, plenty of time to try to sway public opinion on his proposal.

It would make Silicon Valley (including Oakland and San Jose as well as San Francisco) into an actual U.S. state, instead of just a state of mind and a TV show. Currently, public opinion is running about 59 percent opposed to Draper’s plan.

It would also turn San Diego and Orange County into South California; Los Angeles and Santa Barbara into West California, the agricultural Central Valley region into Central California, and Marin and Sonoma counties, plus Sacramento, into North California. The more remote counties further to the north would become Jefferson — a proposal that some people in that region have actually embraced in the past.

There are a lot of reasons to think that this proposal is ludicrous and unlikely to be passed. In addition to winning the approval of the people of California, it would also have to pass the California state legislature as well as the U.S. Congress.